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on Agricultural Economics |
|
Issue of 2013‒04‒13
thirty papers chosen by |
| By: | Jalloh, Abdulai; Nelson, Gerald C.; Thomas, Timothy S.; Zougmoré, Robert; Roy-Macauley, Harold |
| Abstract: | The first of three books in IFPRI’s climate change in Africa series, West African Agriculture and Climate Change: A Comprehensive Analysis examines the food security threats facing 11 of the countries that make up West Africa — Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo — and explores how climate change will increase the efforts needed to achieve sustainable food security throughout the region. West Africa’s population is expected to grow at least through mid-century. The region will also see income growth. Both will put increased pressure on the natural resources needed to produce food, and climate change makes the challenges greater. West Africa is already experiencing rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, and increasing extreme events. Without attention to adaptation, the poor will suffer. Through the use of hundreds of scenario maps, models, figures, and detailed analysis, the editors and contributors of West African Agriculture and Climate Change present plausible future scenarios that combine economic and biophysical characteristics to explore the possible consequences for agriculture, food security, and resources management to 2050. They also offer recommendations to national governments and regional economic agencies already dealing with the vulnerabilities of climate change and deviations in environment. Decisionmakers and researchers will find West African Agriculture and Climate Change a vital tool for shaping policy and studying the various and likely consequences of climate change. |
| Keywords: | Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, West Africa, Africa South of Sahara, Africa, agriculture, Climate change, food security, Crops, Crop yield, Crop modeling, Crop diversification, Crop production, crop failure, land use, Land races, Plant land races, Population distribution, precipitation, Temperature, area, Rainfed farming, maize, Millets, Sorghum, Rice, Groundnuts, data, methodology, International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade, IMPACT model, Greenhouse gases, Rural population, Economic losses, farmers, National Adaptation Programmes of Action, NAPA, farming systems, Livestock, Mortality, food prices |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:resrep:abdulaijalloh&r=agr |
| By: | Glyn Wittwer |
| Abstract: | It is possible that water efficiency in irrigation agriculture may improve substantially over the next decade or two. At the same time, worsening agricultural land and water scarcities worldwide may not be matched by agricultural productivity growth. This means that there may be strong growth in export demand for agricultural and food products in major agricultural nations. This study uses TERM-H2O, a dynamic CGE model with considerable detail in the southern Murray-Darling Basin, to examine the impacts of both fast water efficiency gains and strong export demand growth over time. Water efficiency gains will have relatively small impacts on the economy of the southern basin, but during drought years the gains are larger. The economic benefits on the southern basin of rapid export demand growth will be larger than those of water savings. Water efficiency gains and rapid export demand growth have differing impacts on the composition of crops and livestock production in the southern basin. . |
| Keywords: | Dynamic computable general equilibrium modelling, Water efficiency gains, TERM-H20 |
| JEL: | C68 Q25 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cop:wpaper:g-232&r=agr |
| By: | Robbins, M.J. |
| Abstract: | This paper seeks to problematize the role of local food systems within the food sovereignty movement and as a counter to the logic of the global industrial food system. It answers the question of how food sovereignty, via its tenet of local food systems, addresses the geographical and sectoral distances in the global food system. In doing this, it utilizes an approach loosely based on Chayanovian thinking and analytical tools provided through food regime analysis, the theory of uneven geographical development and the metabolic rift.The paper explores six forms of distance in the industrial food system – production from consumption, distant markets, peasants from their land, producers from consumers, the rural-urban divide and agriculture from nature. Then the paper situates local food systems within food sovereignty and food sovereignty within the wider transnational agrarian movements from which it emerged. Next the paper differentiates local food systems by scale, method and character. Finally, it illustrates how and to what extent food sovereignty counters these distances by evaluating the abilities and gaps of food sovereignty in relation to the various forms of distance. |
| Keywords: | capital accumulation;distance;food sovereignty;local food systems;industrial food system |
| Date: | 2013–04–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:euriss:557&r=agr |
| By: | Anderson, Kym |
| Abstract: | Historically, earnings from farming in many developing countries have been depressed by a pro-urban bias in own-country policies, as well as by governments of richer countries favouring their farmers with import barriers and subsidies. Both sets of policies reduced global economic welfare and agricultural trade, and added to global inequality and poverty. Over the past three decades, much progress has been made in reducing agricultural protection in high-income countries and agricultural disincentives in developing countries. However, plenty of price distortions remain. As well, the propensity of governments to insulate their domestic food market from fluctuations in international prices has not waned. Such insulation contributes to the amplification of international food price fluctuations, yet it does little to advance national food security when food-importing and food-exporting countries equally engage in insulating behaviour. Thus there is still much scope to improve global economic welfare via multilateral agreement not only to remove remaining trade distortions but also to desist from varying trade barriers when international food prices gyrate. This paper summarizes indicators of trends and fluctuations in farm trade barriers before examining unilateral or multilateral trade arrangements, together with complementary domestic measures, that could lead to better global food security outcomes. |
| Keywords: | export taxation; Farmer protection; food price spikes; trade policy history |
| JEL: | F13 F14 Q17 Q18 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9286&r=agr |
| By: | Wollni, Meike; Andersson, Camilla |
| Abstract: | In low potential agricultural areas like the Honduran hillsides characterized by soil degradation and erosion, organic agriculture can provide a means to break the downward spiral of resource degradation and poverty. We use original survey data to analyze the factors influencing the decision to convert to organic agriculture. Previous studies have emphasized the role of spatial patterns in the diffusion and adoption of agricultural technologies in general and organic agriculture in particular. These spatial patterns can result from a variety of underlying factors. In this article we test various potential explanations, including the availability of information in the farmer's neighborhood, social conformity concerns and perceived positive external effects of the adoption decision, in a spatially explicit adoption model. We find that farmers who believe to act in accordance with their neighbors' expectations and with greater availability of information in their neighborhood network are more likely to adopt organic agriculture. Furthermore, perceived positive productivity spillovers to neighboring plots decrease the probability of adoption. We discuss the implications of our findings for the dissemination of sustainable agricultural technologies in low-potential agricultural areas in developing countries. |
| Keywords: | neighborhood effects, social conformity, spatial autoregressive probit model, organic agriculture, technology adoption, Central America, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Development, Land Economics/Use, Production Economics, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, O13, O33, Q12, Q16, |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gagfdp:146715&r=agr |
| By: | Yu, Bingxin; Zhu, Tingju; Breisinger, Clemens; Manh Hai, Nguyen |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how a changing climate may affect rice production and how Vietnamese farmers are likely to adapt to various climatic conditions using an innovative yield function approach, taking into account sample selection bias and endogeneity of inputs. Model results suggest that although climate change can potentially reduce rice production, farmers will respond mainly by adjusting the production portfolio and levels of input use. However, investments in rural infrastructure and human capital will have to support farmers in the adaptation process if production levels and farm incomes are to be sustained in the future. |
| Keywords: | Climate change; rice; control function; endogeneity; Sampling; Agriculture; rice; crop yield;, |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1248&r=agr |
| By: | Egziabher, Kidanemariam G.; Mathijs, Erik; Deckers, Jozef A.; Gebrehiwot, Kindeya; Bauer, Hans; Maertens, Miet |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyze the impact of the Integrated Household Extension Program (IHEP) in the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia. The government of Ethiopia – in contrast to the majority of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa – invests heavily in agricultural extension but very little empirical evidence is available on the impact of public extension services on farm performance and household welfare that could justify these investments. The IHEP program is a particularly interesting case as it is an example for how agricultural extension systems in developing countries changed during the past two decades, from centralized top-down technology-transfer-orientated approaches to decentralized, participatory and more integrated approaches. We empirically assess the impact of participation in the IHEP program on household income, investment and income diversification. We use household survey data from 730 farm-households in the Tigray region and propensity score matching methods to estimate the impact. We find that the extension program had a large positive impact on household welfare – increasing income with about 10 percent – and on investment and income diversification. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural extension, farm-household welfare, income diversification, propensity score matching, Ethiopia, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Q12, Q16, O12, |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:kucawp:146558&r=agr |
| By: | Orden, David |
| Abstract: | Movement toward the objective of undistorted world agricultural markets has been set back by the lapse since 2008 of the WTO Doha Round negotiations. In the absence of a new agreement, constraints on distortionary agricultural domestic support remain lax. One might have expected policies of subsidizing farmers to have faded in the high-price environment since 2008. But that is not the case. In both the US and EU, agricultural support policy is under review and new options are being devised. Likewise, support for agriculture has increased in key emerging economies. In the US, in particular, the next farm bill likely will contain support measures that would have been harder to enact if a Doha Round agreement were coming into effect. This paper reviews these developments and their implications for trade and future trade negotiations. The WTO commitments of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and their levels of agricultural support are examined, including the domestic support commitments of Russia under its accession to the WTO in 2012. |
| Keywords: | domestic, support, trade, wto, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Development, International Relations/Trade, |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:catpcp:146657&r=agr |
| By: | Yang, Shang-Ho; Woods, Timothy A. |
| Abstract: | This study examines farm market patron responses to food sampling experiences and provides a baseline of regional differences of consumer interest in various products selling in the farmers market. Results show that the sampling strategy can highly engage consumers’ attention and easy to spread the product information. Food sampling showed a number of immediate product purchasing impacts, as well as other behaviors positively impacting vendor sales. The most important reason patrons identified that encouraged them to try a sample was friendliness of vendors. Sampling is a highly experiential merchandising strategy that fits in well with the farm market venue. More than half of the patrons indicated actually purchasing after sampling that were not planning to buy the product that day before the food sampling. |
| Keywords: | consumer behavior, farm market, food sampling, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, Marketing, Q13, Q18, |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea13:146711&r=agr |
| By: | Schuster, Monica; Maertens, Miet |
| Abstract: | Developing countries are increasingly exporting fresh horticulture products to high-income countries. These exports increasingly have to comply with stringent public and private standards, as well as other quality and safety issues. There is an ongoing debate on the effect of private standards on the inclusion of small-scale farmers in export supply chains. With this paper, we contribute to this debate by providing robust evidence from the Peruvian asparagus export sector, and thereby addressing several important methodological shortcomings and gaps in the existing literature. We use a unique firm level dataset on 567 asparagus export firms from 1993 – 2011 and several methods, including fixed effects and GMM estimators, to estimate the causal impact of certification to private standards on companies sourcing strategy. We find that certification leads to vertical integration and significantly reduces the share of product that is sourced from external producers, with a larger effect for small-scale producers. When distinguishing between production and processing standards, and between low-level and high-level standards, we find that especially high-level production standards have a negative impact on sourcing from (small-scale) producers. |
| Keywords: | Private standards, Global supply chains, Small-scale farming, Horticultural exports, Peru, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, D22, F14, L15, L22, O13, |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:kucawp:146557&r=agr |
| By: | Prusa, T.J. |
| Keywords: | import, protection, contingency, recession, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:catpcp:146656&r=agr |
| By: | Dubois, Pierre; Griffith, Rachel; Nevo, Aviv |
| Abstract: | Food purchases differ substantially across countries. We use detailed household level data from the US, France and the UK to (i) document these differences; (ii) estimate a demand system for food and nutrients, and (iii) simulate counterfactual choices if households faced prices and nutritional characteristics from other countries. We find that differences in prices and characteristics are important and can explain some difference (e.g., US-France difference in caloric intake), but generally cannot explain many of the compositional patterns by themselves. Instead, it seems an interaction between the economic environment and differences in preferences is needed to explain cross country differences. |
| Keywords: | characteristics model; demand; nutrition |
| JEL: | C51 D1 I18 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9328&r=agr |
| By: | Laborde Debucquet, David; Martin, Will |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we provide an overview of the agricultural trade negotiations within the current World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations and we show that including agriculture in the Doha Development Agenda talks is important both economically and politically, although the political resistance to reform is particularly strong in this sector. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural trade; International trade; Trade policy; Doha Developmental Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO); Doha Development Agenda; Tariff; Market access; Domestic support;, |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1251&r=agr |
| By: | Douglas Gollin (Williams College) |
| Abstract: | According to national accounts data for developing countries, value added per worker is on average four times higher in the non-agriculture sector than in agriculture. Taken at face value this "agricultural productivity gap" suggests that labor is greatly misallocated across sectors in the developing world. In this paper we draw on new micro evidence to ask to what extent the gap is still present when better measures of inputs and outputs are taken into consideration. We find that even after considering sector differences in hours worked and human capital per worker, urban-rural cost-of-living differences, and alternative measures of sector income from household survey data, a puzzlingly large gap remains. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed012:510&r=agr |
| By: | Schuster, Monica; Maertens, Miet |
| Abstract: | Private standards are increasingly governing international food trade, but little is known about the implications for developing countries. The objective of the study is to provide evidence in the ongoing debate on standards as barrier or catalyst for developing countries’ export. We use the Peruvian fresh asparagus export sector as a case study and provide empirical panel data evidence on the effects of certification to private food standards on export volumes of firms. Our dataset on the transactions of 567 export firms from 1993 to 2011 allows us to take export dynamics and time trends into account, as well as to keep country and sector specific effects constant. In our empirical strategy, we first use simple OLS and ignore firm-specific unobservable effects and dynamic export patterns. We then account for export persistence, as well as company fixed effects and finally, use System-GMM estimators to address potential reversed causality issues. These approaches represent substantial methodological improvements compared with previous studies on the trade effects of private standards. The empirical innovation is crucial for accurate impact estimation, as results indicate that certification to standards has a positive effect on the export volumes of companies, but that the significant effect dwindles as soon as unobserved firm heterogeneity and export persistency are properly controlled for. Additional studies with large data availabilities are needed to further disentangle the effect and confirm the case study results. |
| Keywords: | Horticultural exports, Private standards, Trade effects, Developing countries, Dynamic panel, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, C23, F13, L15, O13, Q17, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:kucawp:146521&r=agr |
| By: | Speer, Johanna; Vásquez, William F. |
| Abstract: | The purpose of the research summarized in this paper is to provide policy-relevant knowledge on the governance of rural services in Guatemala and thus to contribute to improving the provision of services that are essential for agricultural and rural development. Based on quantitative and qualitative primary data, we examine how services are actually provided today and how community preferences and participation affect service provision in rural Guatemala. Our main finding is that the provision of formally decentralized services by local governments is incomplete. |
| Keywords: | public services; community involvement; rural areas; Participation; community-based development;, |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1250&r=agr |
| By: | Bastos, Paulo; Straume, Odd Rune; Urrego, Jaime A. |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether and how rainfall shocks affect tariff setting in the agricultural sector. In a model of strategic trade policy, the authors show that the impact of a negative rainfall shock on optimal import tariffs is generally ambiguous, depending on the weight placed by the domestic policy maker on tariff revenue, profits and the consumer surplus. The more weight placed on domestic profits, the more likely it is that the policy maker will respond to a rainfall shortage by reducing import tariffs. These findings are robust to alternative assumptions about market structure and the timing of the game. Using detailed panel data on applied tariffs and rainfall for 70 nations, the authors find robust evidence that rainfall shortages generally induce policy makers to set lower tariffs on agricultural imports. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness,Economic Theory&Research,Markets and Market Access,Free Trade,Science of Climate Change |
| Date: | 2013–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6394&r=agr |
| By: | Mapila, Mariam A. T. J.; Kirsten, Johann F.; Meyer, Ferdinand; Kankwamba, Henry |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a model of the Malawi maize commodity market that is developed for use as a policy analysis tool. The model captures national and local maize market dynamics and the linkages existing within the maize market in the country. This research has been undertaken in order to provide policy makers with a robust tool which can be used to simulate the impact of policy changes on markets and households. |
| Keywords: | Impact evaluation; simulations; time series; Modeling; Commodities; Commodity markets; maize; Agricultural policy;, |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1254&r=agr |
| By: | Beaman, Lori; Karlan, Dean S.; Thuysbaert, Bram; Udry, Christopher |
| Abstract: | In an experiment providing fertilizer grants to women rice farmers in Mali, we found that women who received fertilizer increased both the quantity of fertilizer they used on their plots and complementary inputs such as herbicides and hired labor. This highlights that farmers respond to an increase in availability of one input by re-optimizing other inputs, making it challenging to isolate the returns to any one input. We also found that while the increase in inputs led to a significantly higher level of output, we find no evidence that profits increased. Our results suggest that fertilizer's impact on profits is small compared to other sources of variation. This may make it difficult for farmers to observe the impact of fertilizer on their plots, and accordingly this affects their ability to learn about the returns to fertilizer and could affect their decision to adopt even in the absence of credit constraints. |
| Keywords: | agricultural economics; returns to fertilizer |
| JEL: | O12 O13 Q12 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9340&r=agr |
| By: | Harari, Mariaflavia; La Ferrara, Eliana |
| Abstract: | We conduct a geographically and temporally disaggregated empirical analysis of civil conflict at the sub-national level in Africa over the period 1997-2011. Our units of observation are cells of 1 degree of latitude by 1 degree of longitude. We exploit within-year variation in the timing of weather shocks and in the growing season of different crops, as well as spatial variation in crop cover, to construct an original measure of shocks that are relevant for agricultural production. Employing a new drought index we show that negative climate shocks which occur during the growing season of the main crop cultivated in the cell have a sizeable and persistent effect on conflict incidence. We also use state-of-the-art spatial econometric techniques to test for the presence of temporal and spatial spillovers in conflict, and we find both to be sizeable and highly statistically significant. Exploiting variation in the type of conflict episode, we find that the impact of climate shocks on conflict is particularly significant when focusing on outcomes such as battles and violence against civilians. Our estimates can be used to predict how future warming scenarios affect the prevalence and diffusion of conflict. |
| Keywords: | Africa; civil conflict; gridded data; spatial; weather shocks |
| JEL: | O12 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9277&r=agr |
| By: | Tangermann, Stefan; von Cramon-Taubadel, Stephan |
| Abstract: | [Conclusions] All policy making, including for the agricultural sector, is of idiosyncratic nature and differs widely from country to country. However, due to its supra-national dimension the EUs Common Agricultural Policy is a very special case that is in no way even vaguely comparable to the agricultural policy regime in any other part of the world. The specificity of the CAP relates to several factors, including the historical origin, the process of decision making, the financing regime, and the global significance of the EUs agricultural sector. [...] -- |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:daredp:1302&r=agr |
| By: | Gouel, Christophe |
| Abstract: | When food prices spike in countries with large numbers of poor people, public intervention is essential to alleviate hunger and malnutrition. For governments, this is also a case of political survival. Government actions often take the form of direct interventions in the market to stabilize food prices, which goes against most international advice to rely on safety nets and world trade. Despite the limitations of food price stabilization policies, they are widespread in developing countries. This paper attempts to untangle the elements of this policy conundrum. Price stabilization policies arise as a result of international and domestic coordination problems. At the individual country level, it is in the national interest of many countries to adjust trade policies to take ad-vantage of the world market in order to achieve domestic price stability. When countercyclical trade policies become widespread, the result is a thinner and less reliable world market, which further decreases the appeal of laissez-faire. A similar vicious circle operates in the domestic market: without effective policies to protect the poor, such as safety nets, food market liberalization lacks credibility and makes private actors reluctant to intervene, which in turn forces government to step in. The current policy challenge lies in designing policies that will build trust in world markets and increase trust between pub-lic and private agents. |
| Keywords: | Markets and Market Access,Emerging Markets,Access to Markets,Economic Theory&Research,Labor Policies |
| Date: | 2013–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6393&r=agr |
| By: | Houssou, Nazaire; Diao, Xinshen; Cossar, Frances; Kolavalli, Shashidhara; Jimah, Kipo; Aboagye, Patrick |
| Abstract: | Even though the intention of the government is to promote private sector-led mechanization, findings suggest that the AMSEC model is unlikely to be a profitable business model attractive to private investors even with the current level of subsidy. The low tractor utilization rate as a result of low operational scale is the most important constraint to the intertemporal profitability of tractor-hire services. The government can play an important role in facilitating the development of a tractor service market; however, the successful development of such a market depends on the incentive and innovation of the private sector, including farmers who want to own tractors as part of their business portfolio, traders who know how to bring in affordable tractors and expand the market, and manufacturers in exporting countries who want to seek a long-term potential market opportunity in Ghana and in other west African countries. |
| Keywords: | agricultural transformation; mechanization; agricultural mechanization; tractor hire; Investment; Government policy; subsidies; Private ownership; Market development; Private sector;, |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1255&r=agr |
| By: | Glauber, Joseph W. |
| Keywords: | International Relations/Trade, |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:usao13:146756&r=agr |
| By: | Westcott, Paul C.; Jewison, Michael |
| Keywords: | Crop Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty, |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:usao13:146846&r=agr |
| By: | Baland, Jean-Marie; Libois, Francois; Mookherjee, Dilip |
| Abstract: | A household panel data set is used to investigate the effects of economic growth on firewood collection in Nepal between 1995 and 2010. Results from preceding cross-sectional analyses are found to be robust: (a) rising consumptions for all but the top decile were associated with increased firewood collections, contrary to the Poverty-Environment hypothesis; (b) sources of growth matter: increased livestock was associated with increased collections, and falling household size, increased education, non-farm business assets and road connectivity with reduced collections. Nepal households collected 25% less firewood over this period, mostly explained by falling livestock, and rising education, connectivity and out-migration. |
| Keywords: | deforestation; Environmental Kuznets Curve; growth; Nepal |
| JEL: | D12 O1 Q2 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9394&r=agr |
| By: | Anne Borge Johannesen; Anders Skonhoft (Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology); Anders Nielsen (Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biology, University of Oslo) |
| Abstract: | We study the economy and ecology of sheep farming under future climate change scenarios. The analysis is at the farm level and includes two different categories of the animals, ewes (adult females) and lambs with a crucial distinction between the outdoors grazing season and the winter indoors season. The model is formulated in a Nordic economic and biological setting. During the outdoors grazing season, animals may experience growth constraints as a result of limited grazing resources. The available grazing resources are determined by animal density (stocking rate) and weather conditions potentially affecting the weight, and hence, the value of lambs. Because empirical evidence suggests that climate changes, e.g., increased temperature, have contrasting effects on lamb weights depending on the location of the farm, the spatial effects of such changes are analyzed. |
| Keywords: | sheep farming, weather conditions, climate change, vegetation growth, stage model |
| Date: | 2013–03–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nst:samfok:14213&r=agr |
| By: | Maertens, Miet; Verhofstadt, Ellen |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyse the indirect effects of the boom in horticultural exports in Senegal on child schooling. The export boom has caused a dramatic increase in female off-farm wage employment, which led to increased female bargaining power in the household. We investigate the causal effect of female wage income on primary school enrolment. We develop a collective household model with endogenous bargaining power to show that, if women have higher preferences for schooling than men, the impact of female wage income on school enrolment will be the result of a positive income effect, a negative labour substitution effect and a positive empowerment effect. We address the question empirically using original household survey data from Senegal. We use different econometric techniques and show that female off-farm wage income has a positive effect on primary school enrolment, and that the effect is equally large for girls and boys. Our results imply that the horticultural export boom in Senegal has indirectly contributed to the second and third Millennium Development Goals of universal primary education and elimination of gender disparities in primary education. |
| Keywords: | globalisation, female labour market participation, female empowerment, collective household model, primary school enrolment, gender disparity in schooling, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:kucawp:146519&r=agr |
| By: | Boris E. Bravo-Ureta (University of Connecticut); Jeremy Jelliffe (University of Connecticut); Adam Rabinowitz (University of Connecticut); Joyce Meader (University of Connecticut); Richard Meinert (University of Connecticut); Joseph Bonelli (University of Connecticut); Sheila Andrew |
| Abstract: | The average total cost of production for milk in Connecticut in 2011 is $31.52/cwt, based on a sample of 39 state dairy producers. Additional total cost of production (COP) estimates are provided for different farm-size classes, ranging from $26.05/cwt for the largest size class to $35.76/cwt for the smallest. The most significant costs to CT dairies are feed and labor, which make up close to 60% of total COP and are primarily responsible for the variation seen in the projected 2012 monthly COP estimates. Monthly estimates of the 2012 CT COP for milk are based on the 2011 COP, which is adjusted using USDA NASS indices and CT production figures for the corresponding month. The estimated COP for milk in CT has increased in every month in 2012, from $31.97/cwt in January to $39.10/cwt in September. The Statistical Uniform Price (SUP) for milk in Hartford, CT decreased monthly for the first half of 2012 and increased in each month of the third quarter, resulting in a net increase from January to September. Given the monthly trends in COP and the SUP, the value of payments to CT dairy farms under CT Public Act 09-229 has increased month-to-month from $6.95/cwt in January to $12.71/cwt in September. |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zwi:uconnr:01&r=agr |
| By: | Timothy J. Bartik (W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the social costs of job loss due to environmental regulation. Per job lost, potential social costs of job loss are high, plausibly over $100,000 in present value costs (2012 dollars) per permanently lost job. However, these social costs will typically be far less than the earnings associated with lost jobs, because labor markets and workers adjust, increased leisure has some value, and employers benefit from wage reductions. A plausible range for social costs is 8 - 32 percent of the associated earnings of the lost jobs. Social costs will be higher for older workers, high-wage jobs, and in high unemployment conditions. Under plausible estimates of job loss for most environmental regulations, the social costs of job loss will typically be less than 10 percent of other measured social costs of regulations. Therefore, adding in job loss is unlikely to tip many regulatory benefit-cost analyses. |
| Keywords: | Benefit cost analysis, worker displacement, environmental regulation, social cost of labor |
| JEL: | D61 Q52 J68 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:13-193&r=agr |